Cool stuff: Arabic and Indian music by Zelena Hull

Arabic Music 

When I was watching performers play the Oud the thing, I kept thinking the entire time was: How do I tune this thing? So apparently in order to tune the Oud you have to press the string inside and turn the tuning peg at the same time. You do this so that the string stays inside. So apparently this instrument has 11 strings. With these strings there are 5 pairs and 1 singular string. They then recommend tuning the top of each pair and then tuning the bottom of each pair to the first one. So apparently there’s many different ways to tune the Oud. The Arabic and Turkish Oud are completely different animals so I’ll only be discussing the Arabic Oud. One of the most common tuning for the Arabic Oud is C F A D G C. This tuning can be used with western musical styles. Another tuning is F A D G C F. 

My source for tuning the Oud.


I wanted to learn more Qanun and how that was tuned and other things about the instrument as well. The instrument has 26 sets of triplets. The range is usually 3 octaves with a fifth on the top. I love how big the range is and the fact that you can change each string tuning during songs. It’s really cool how it accommodates micro tones so easily. Apparently, there are numerous tunings for this instrument and there are old ways and new ways of doing such. The common old way to tune at least for this person is C D E F G A B C and the common new way is E half flat F G A flat B C D E half flat. There are also other tuning modes based on the melodic system.  

Where I got the information on the Qanun.

Now on to India.

I know that sitars and other instruments chordophones in India are tuned to different ragas (scales.) I wanted to know more about these scales in particular. So apparently each raga can have up to 7 notes on paper, but in practice it does sound a little different. Since, pitch is a bit looser and microtonal shift is common in Indian music ragas can sound different performed than on paper. There are different classifications of raga and names for quite a few of them. The ragas when written down tend to be using half and whole steps. When performed the microtonal can slightly deviate as long as it’s around the initial area of the original note. Some ragas sound very similar to modes in other music such as the Greek Dorian mode sounding like the Kafi raga. It is very interesting to see some of the note corollaries between the different music systems. 


This helped me understand a little more about it.

This video was very interesting to me because it helped me grasp how some of the ragas were structured. 

Comments

  1. Cultural Echoes by ChelseaJanuary 29, 2021 at 11:49 AM

    Zelena, enjoyed your blog. You seem to have done a lot of theory research. Do you feel like you have a clear understanding of Arab and Indian music theory now? Even after watching all of these videos, I don't think it would click for me until I was immersed in the culture.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kaylyn GoodFebruary 1, 2021 at 10:30 AM

    Zelena, I really like the different route you went into this! Some of the things you wrote about are things I have never thought about! Thank you for the creative ideas! Especially learning about the scales!! Do you find any difficulty with finding this information?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cassandra ShaddockFebruary 1, 2021 at 7:25 PM

    Tuning the Oud seems so complicated, but the video makes it seem so easy! It's interesting how the performer has to hold the strings down as they turn the pegs.

    I love how the Qanun has such a large range and many notes, since I too play an instrument with a large range. With the added microtones, that gives so many possibilities with one instrument! Imagine playing a chromatic scale on one!

    I find it super cool how raga is written on paper but isn't as strict as Western music. Most of it is improvised and not played with specific notes, which makes sense because microtones make everything more complicated to write down. That video makes raga seem a lot simpler and more closely related to our music. I like how it shows that each raga is based on a specific form of one of our scales and each one has a specific tonic for it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tisha is Treble February 1, 2021 at 8:00 PM

    Hey Zelena! I love your entry on the raga! It was very informative and helped me understand a little bit more about the raga structure. I love how raga is flexible and it allows the musician to improvise however they feel. Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Aimee BoudreauFebruary 1, 2021 at 11:30 PM

    Hi Zelena! I thought that your entry was really interesting! I too was really curious about the oud and it's kinda cool how there are different variations on how you can tune the oud, depending on location and what styles you might use it for.

    ReplyDelete

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